International Workers' Association

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The International Workers' Association , International Workers' Association or International Workers' Association (IAA), usually called Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores (AIT) or International Workers Association (IWA), is an international federation of anarcho-syndicalist trade unions. It sees itself as the successor organization to the First International .

history

In December 1922, the International Workers 'Association was founded by workers' delegations in Berlin from ten countries. The name was chosen to recall the tradition of the First International, which lasted from 1864 to 1876. As an anarchist trade union federation , the IAA arose out of the will to organize itself independently in order to set itself apart from the Marxist- dominated unions. The IAA had sections in 16 countries, such as the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT, Spain), the Confédération Nationale du Travail (France), the Free Workers Union (FAU), the Solidarity Federation (Great Britain), the Unione Sindacale Italiana (USI) and the Federación Obrera Regional Argentin (FORA). After the Second World War , the IAA supported the Federation of Liberal Socialists in Germany and took part in the publication of the journal Knowledge and Liberation .

The IAA had lost weight for a long time since the 1940s, but with the worsening capitalist economic crisis and the collapse of state socialist models, there has been increasing interest in social alternatives for some time. The anarcho-syndicalist trade unions in post-war Europe have fewer paying members than reformist trade union organizations (CNT-IAA France e.g. three-digit range). However, the proportion of active people is much higher than in other unions.

In December 2016, the CNT (Spain), FAU (Germany), and USI (Italy) were excluded from the IAA. This was due to differences in cooperation with other organizations. They then founded the International Confederation of Workers (IKA) with other grassroots unions in 2018 .

Content profile

The anarcho-syndicalist International Workers' Association advocates free labor organization and a libertarian social order. It fights for anarcho - syndicalist self-administration in production and consumption , i. H. management and ownership of the factories by the classless society. Without a paid administrative apparatus, the member associations of the IAA ideally organize local labor disputes and are committed to regional federalism and international solidarity . Based on the tradition of anarchism, the organization is anti-clerical and directed against central ruling powers, including the military and secret services.

Member organizations

The following organizations are members:

(As of February 2017) The secretariat is located in Warsaw.

literature

  • Martin Veith: Why IAA? On the developments in the International Workers' Association since 1996. A summary of the main decisions . Ed .: Institute for Syndicalism Research (= Edition Syndicalism Research  . No. 2 ). Moers 2010 ( online [PDF]).
  • Declaration of Principles of the International Workers' Association . First published in the newspaper Der Syndikalist . Berlin 1922. Reprinted in HM Bock: Syndicalism and Left Communism from 1918 to 1923 (1969 and Darmstadt 1993); Also in Anarchist Texts No. 27, “The Spanish Revolution II”, appendix, pages 43–47. Libertad Verlag, Berlin 1982.
  • The IAA and its German section FAU . (Chapter V) In: FAU. The first 30 years (1977–2007). Syndikat-A, (Moers) 2008. ISBN 978-3-86841-004-4 .
  • Struggle for a revolutionary working class international. History of the IAA from 1921–1931 . Reports by Augustin Souchy , Alexander Schapiro , Gerhard Wartenberg , Arthur Müller-Lehning. Berlin 1931.
  • Marcel van der Linden : Preliminary to the comparative social history of syndicalism . In: Anarchism in Art and Politics. For Arthur (Müller) Lehning's 85th birthday . Oldenburg 1985.
  • Linden / Thorpe: Rise and Fall of Revolutionary Syndicalism . In: 1999 - Journal for the Social History of the 20th and 21st Century , July 1990, Issue 3.
  • Wayne Thorpe: "The workers themselves": revolutionary syndicalism and international labor, 1913-1923 . Ed .: International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam. Kluwer, 1989, ISBN 90-247-2347-7 . XVIII, 352 S. Bibliogr. Pp. 325-342.
  • Rudolf Rocker : On the prehistory of the Syndicalist International. The International Workers' Association . In: Memoirs of a German Anarchist . Suhrkamp Verlag , Frankfurt 1974.
  • Schmück Brothers (ed.): The IAA. History of the International Workers' Association . Libertad Verlag , anarchist text issue No. 25, Berlin 1980. Original: Verlag Der Syndikalist , Berlin 1932

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ anarchosyndikalismus.org
  2. ^ German website of the IAA .
  3. ↑ International Secretariat of FAU: FAU and IAA - Looking back ahead. In: fau.org. January 2, 2017, accessed November 24, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Secretariat: Report of IWA`s XXV Congress in Valencia-December 6, 7 and 8 - 2013 December 15 2013, accessed on December 7, 2016 (English).
  5. ^ Secretariat: Statement of the XXVI Congress. (No longer available online.) December 5, 2016, archived from the original on December 7, 2016 ; accessed on December 7, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.iwa-ait.org